Arrest in Bellmore smoke shop heist

Police said he committed armed robbery. If so, Emmett Dalton has the right name for it - sharing the same name as the leader of a gang that terrorized the Great Plains and West, starting in the late 1880s.

Nassau County police said this Emmett Dalton, 21, of 4 Airway Dr. in Bellmore, robbed the Cool Stop Smoke and Convenience store on Merrick Road in Bellmore at gunpoint Saturday. He was charged with that robbery after he flashed a silver .22-caliber pistol at three young boys inside a Dunkin' Donuts on Newbridge Road in North Bellmore early Sunday evening, police said.

An acquaintance, Christopher Mason-Ginther, 21, of 7 Fence Lane, Levittown, also was arrested in that incident, police said.

Police said Dalton was arrested Sunday following a complaint that he had flashed a handgun inside the Dunkin' Dounts.

Dalton was carrying the loaded .22-caliber pistol when stopped at the Dunkin' Donuts Sunday at 6:35 p.m., police said. Police said the investigation revealed Dalton had "displayed the handgun" to three boys, two aged 13, the other 12.

Police said Mason-Ginther displayed "obscene photos" stored on his cell phone to the three boys, as well. The nature of those photos was not characterized by police.

The Dalton name may seem familiar. In the late 1880s the Dalton Gang became one of the most-notorious outlaw groups in the United States, led by a robber named Emmett Dalton.

His brothers - Frank, Bob and Grat - also were members of the gang at various times.

That Emmett Dalton eventually was caught, tried and imprisoned. After his release, he acted and wrote books about the gang. He died in 1937.

Dalton was charged with first-degree robbery and first-degree criminal use of a firearm for the Saturday robbery of the Cool Stop Smoke shop and second-degree criminal possession of a weapon, two counts of third-degree criminal possession of a weapon and three counts of endangering the welfare of a child for the incident at the Dunkin' Donuts.

Mason-Ginther was charged with three counts of endangering the welfare of a child, police said.

Police said officers from the 7th Precinct recognized the description given in the call reporting the Dunkin' Donuts incident Sunday as matching that of a robber being sought in the incident from the previous night in Bellmore.

That suspect was described as wearing dark pants, a black jacket with a white logo on the upper left chest, a black baseball cap, black hood, white gloves and a dark-colored bandanna. He fled in a light blue Mazda northbound on Eastern Avenue, police said.

Both Dalton and Mason-Ginther are scheduled for arraignment Monday in First District Court in Hempstead.